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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Well, I think the fact that it's been 3 months since I wrote an update on Norah's development is probably proof in the pudding that she has been a time-consuming, challenging, busy little lady of late!

Norah, you are our little Firecracker, plain and simple. You have gone from a wobbly baby to an independent toddler, overnight. Your strong will and stubbornness continue to be the dominant features of your personality, and boy are you exercising your ability to voice your opinions lately!

You have at least 35-40 words in your vocabulary, and it seems you add new ones just about every day. You now regularly say: Mama, Daddy, Pa (Papa), Mimi (for grandma), Tryn, Liam, Lainey, "Bonzer", "Ash", "Hope", puppy, kitty, hot, up, bottle, hi, uh oh, more, please, thank you, all done,sit down, peas, pasta, cracker, snack (so cute - you say NAAAAAACK!), water, tree, ball, bath, splash, shoes, toast, pizza, baby, pee pee, trash, yuck, hat, eyes, potty, bus, truck, leash, glasses, socks, chalk, "coffee" (you say "Waff"). You still sign "more", "please" and "all done" but have started saying the words along with the signs when you use them. You try to repeat words you hear and you watch our mouths closely when we say new things, and we can just see the wheels in your heading spinning while you try to figure out how we make the sounds. Language development is truly incredible, and you seem to be less frustrated in the past couple of days because I think you can finally communicate better using your words.

You now have 14 teeth - 14! And...unfortunately you have learned that you can use them to bite, in addition to chewing your food. We are working on curbing the biting, but you still resort to it pretty frequently right now when frustrated or angry. We try to give you things that are OK to bite instead of us, and we offer cold teethers and popsicles when we think it's due to teething pain. But when it's just bite after bite mid-tantrum, we are also starting brief time outs, or at least abruptly removing you from whomever you are trying to bite and walking away, giving you no attention/reinforcement of the behavior. We do have some luck redirecting you to give us a kiss instead, which is always a sweet diversion. We are hoping this biting is a brief phase.

As previously mentioned in other updates, your sleep has not been the greatest, and we are rounding out a month-long sleep regression. You seem to finally be fighting sleep a little less, but you are still VERY reliant on your bottle in order to go down. In fact, you wake at 5 AM most mornings demanding a "BA-DUH", and NOW! We are trying to wean your dependence on them, but it's not been very successful. Hopefully in the next few months you will give them up on your own? Please?

You have been so funny lately favoring one or the other of us. Sometimes at the end of a workday when we pick you up, you won't give Daddy the time of day and you are all about the Mama. But in the evenings and around bedtime lately, you are 100% in need of your Daddy time. He is the first one you ask for in the morning when you open your eyes, and the one you have been asking for in the night if you wake up. You really love your Daddy, that much is clear!

You also REALLY love your Lainey dog. You two are seriously best buddies. You say puppy as often as you say Daddy, and most of the time you say "daddy-puppy-daddy-puppy-daddy" in the same breath. You are so sweet to her and love to give her snuggles and kisses.

You are fully into climbing mode, and anything and everything is a possible climber for you, including the pantry shelves, dining room table, TV stand, couches/chairs/beds, etc. Outside, you love to push your cart down the sidewalk and could seriously spend hours in the pool. You Love the slide at the park, and have gotten so independent most of the time you go down by yourself! You have noticed the moon and airplanes and now point to the sky when you hear one flying overhead.

You LOVE books - it's the one thing that you will usually sit down and do for the longest periods of time. You love Goodnight Gorilla, Goodnight Moon, The Rainbow Fish, Olivia, Winnie the Pooh, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and Sandra Boynton books. You have a board book called Puppies, which you also adore. I hope you always love to read, and can't wait to share some of my own favorite childhood stories with you.

You are still our funny, sweet, bright little one, but you have an added streak of spice lately. No lie, your Daddy and I are challenged some days with trying to figure out what to do with you next. You keep us endlessly busy, and we just hope that you will always know how loved you are, even on days when we might seem tapped out, tired, frustrated, or discouraged. You are you, and we love and appreciate every crazy bit! You could not be more beautiful to us, little love. Keep growing, beauty, just not too fast, OK?